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kc123 writes "Photographer Kevin McElvaney documents Agbogbloshie, a former wetland in Accra, Ghana, which is home to the world's largest e-waste dumping site. Boys and young men smash devices to get to the metals, especially copper. Injuries, such as burns, untreated wounds, eye damage, lung and back problems, go hand in hand with chronic nausea, anorexia, debilitating headaches and respiratory problems. Most workers die from cancer in their 20s."

This is serious. Not throwing away my e-waste unless I can be sure someone is not going to die from it. We are acting like savages!

You aren't acting like a savage - the people who dispose of it for a living or enrichment, without a care to what they've stuck in some bog, river or former farmland, those are savages. Rather like the cretins who roam our backroads, looking for a clear chance to unload their trash, rather than take it to a proper disposal site.

Much of what's in Ghana has been exported from the first world, to the third world, where people live (even if briefly) on scavenging. This isn't much different from the very depre

It's actually the used computer equipment that gets sold to the third world that ends up in places like Africa. They do actually end up using most of it, until it either breaks or they find something better, and NOBODY buys their used stuff, so THAT stuff ends up in these photographs you are seeing here. The only way WE can prevent that is to completely

The only way WE can prevent that is to completely deny the third world access to technology, which I don't think is an ideal situation.

That's exactly right. If you stem the flow of "e-waste" to Africa you also deny access to second hand affordable computer technology. This type of of environmentalism confuses the cause - extreme poverty - with it's effects. Those people are inhaling toxic fumes for a living because they don't have a better economic choice. If you stem the flow of "e-waste", those kids will end up none the better, maybe sold as slaves on a cocoa plantation or in a brothel.

I don't know if I agree that stemming the flow of e-waste denies them affordable tech... Something tells me that getting old CRTs there isn't all that more cost effective. Nor is getting them ancient cell phones.If this were the case (and maybe it is for all I know) - where's the stories of African PC magicians resurrecting these Pentium 200 MMX machines on Win98?

Are we acting like savages or are we helping these people?Sure 'processing' this waste might kill them in a decade, but starvation without the cash this waste brings in could kill them in a couple of weeks.The situation is kind of like the one with prostitution. People like to moralize how prostitution is wrong and degrading to women, but they never give a though to how those women would survive if prostitution was stopped.

Dispose of my stuff in the proscribed manner at the municipal dump. TV's here, computers there, light bulbs in that shed, batteries one over.... but how do I know they aren't just paying to have that stuff shipped overseas?

E waste. Plastic in the ocean. Pharmaceutical water contamination. We are f'ed.

Are you just baiting us or do you really not know? Overseas is EXACTLY where all that stuff goes. Virtually none of it remains to be processed in the United States. Much of it also winds up in similar locations in China.

The United States International Trade Commission, "the agency determines the impact of imports on U.S. industries", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U... [wikipedia.org], when they asked companies for what they thought for marketing purpose how much waste they dump in foreign markets, those companies replied we do not dump waste, we buy waste disposal services at world competitive rates and what those waste disposal services according to the paper work they receive, they dispose of it according to law in the countries where it is dumped 'er' recycled.

When you sell it to a disposal company and they dump it in foreign markets you are dumping it in foreign market forget the PR=B$ especially from a government department that is just chock a block full of political appointees and is lead around by the nose by US corporate political campaign donors. From them you will get the "truth" but most definitely not the truth.

That is contrary evidence that I'm not prepared to dispute, but I still have to wonder where all the CRTs and American-looking PC chassis in TFA's photos might have come from, if not the United States?

And Dell don't sell out side the US. Little known fact. IBM never sell a thing out side the US. Apple... The reason the Brits hate America is while they get the adverts no units are ever sold in the UK.

Actually, I noticed that picture too. The three in middle lack an ATX connector plate, have the IEC female connector for the monitor power, and have eight slots for expansion slots. Those are old PCs, probably 286's or 386's. Maybe a 486. That does kind of suggest the US, because back then (late 80's, early 90's) most of the IBM-compatibles were sold in the US, though they were certainly available overseas. Probably kind of unusual to run across something like that in what must be a sea of discarded P4

I have a working '486 VLB motherboard system myself, 4 MEGAbytes of RAM, wow! I had the parts mothballed for decades and last year finally rebuilt a working system from it. I should be one of the people selling that stuff on eBay....

While there might be some "truth" to that story, it's sure not all be done here. You can bet that many companies who are full of overstock on materials to reclaim find it easier to rent a few dozen cargo containers and simply pack them full and file them over. And since we inspect under 1% of the outgoing and less than 3% of the incoming, you're just trusting that "commercial recyclable waste" isn't electronic components, but bulk metal, and so on. My time as a shipper/receiver for a company over a decad

You put it in a black garbage bag and throw it in with the general trash. The way I look at it, it's better that we're polluting our own country than fucking up one that barely has a government and the people have little say in what we dump there.

I've known about these African cesspools for at least 10 years now (I think they featured them on 60min once) and I've refused to "properly" dispose of my e-waste ever since. I also refuse to participate in e-waste programs at work and take the opportunity to infor

Couldn't find much about cancer rates except people repeating that particular line. However, this seems reiable and seems pretty deadly:from http://www.worstpolluted.org/p... [worstpolluted.org] "Samples taken around the perimeter of Agbogbloshie, for instance, found a presence of lead levels as high as 18,125 ppm in soil."From wikipedia:"No safe threshold for lead exposure has been discovered—that is, there is no known sufficiently small amount of lead that will not cause harm to the body."

"No safe threshold for lead exposure has been discovered—that is, there is no known sufficiently small amount of lead that will not cause harm to the body."

When you get down to levels in natural streams that people and animals are able to live off without any obvious consequences, in the sub-ppb level, then you are effectively safe in this context considering:

"Samples taken around the perimeter of Agbogbloshie, for instance, found a presence of lead levels as high as 18,125 ppm in soil."

Assuming that is using a comma as a thousands separator, that is 1.8% lead content in the soil, that is ten times as much lead per weight than leaded fuel, and on par or more than the amount of lead in lead based paints.

Yes, it is true that lead is dangerous. Lead poisoning can cause mental retardation, and even death. But there is little evidence that it causes cancer. It kills you in other ways. So if it is true that "most workers die from cancer in their 20s", it is not the lead that is causing it. Most likely that "factoid" was just made up by some journalist. Ghana is not that poor compared to the rest of Africa, and I doubt that these people would be stupid enough to engage in an activity if it was really an au

Maybe not stupid. Desperate with people to send money back to perhaps. History is full of people selling themselves into everything up to and including a short life as a slave for the benefit of people they care about.Plus at 20 anyone that doesn't know better feels pretty fucking invincible. They could see it as a death sentence for the unlucky.One of my grandfathers worked at an arsenic mine that was badly run. In hindsight it was an automatic death sentence but it took three decades for everyone who

Loss of appetite is implied. This is typical of people who's bodies are in general distress (re: poison, which cancers tend to generate, and exists in e-waste). This innocuous mention, is subtle but prominently descriptive when talking about an area with a high rate of cancer.

Actually, the "recycling" process (if you want to call it that) is pretty complete. Circuit boards are stripped of their components, which are then soaked in acid to recover the metals. What's left of the circuit boards are burned along with the plastics. Wire is burned to get rid of the insulation, and the left over copper recycled. Metal parts are recycled. Glass is smelted down to recover the lead. There actually isn't much left once it's been "processed".

It could inspire us to support companies that actually do recycling rather than dumping. It could inspire you to pay to recycle your phone rather than toss it in the trash. It could inspire you to push for consumer options that create less e-waste. It could inspire you to donate to a research project or start one to find a industrial use for e-waste.

It could even just be simply to inform you that people are suffering because of greed. News does not always need you to take action. Sometimes its purpose is just to inform.

Yes, that would have been a very good message to give, had they listed ANY reputable companies as alternatives. This article gives practically no information. Other than photo captions, the slashdot "summary" is actually LONGER than the entire article.

This is nothing more than a heart-string sensationalist article to up their viewership. Had the author actually cared about these people they would have listed the companies responsible for this crap, and the reputable companies that actually recycle the materials properly instead of literally putting the people on little monitor-soapboxes (yes literally, check out the photos) and adding sad captions like some twisted version of lolcats.

It could inspire us to support companies that actually do recycling rather than dumping.

You don't get it... This is the recycling you speak of! My town used to have a couple days a year you could drop off electronics and they would "recycle" them by giving the gear to companies where it would be sent to less developed nations where "outdated technology could still be used". They just don't tell you that when they were done with it (or if they had no use for it) that this this is how it would be used...

It could even just be simply to inform you that people are suffering because of greed. News does not always need you to take action. Sometimes its purpose is just to inform.

Yup, these people are greedy, they would rather burn this stuff, risking personal injury, to

Right... so... you want to be sheltered from the worst news from the unprivileged, because you feel powerless to stop it? Tell that to the people in that situation, with significantly less power to stop it! Yes! Let's not talk about the bad things in the world unless the newspiece has a button that you can personally click to solve that problem. That's exactly how problem-solving works. Who knows why the press never thought of that!

Awareness is only useful if it can lead to change for the better. Knowing about this is not helpful, at least to me.

There's a difference between knowing it as a vanilla fact and seeing it, so yes, awareness on a more motivational level, which might lead to change, eventually. I could see pressure being put on companies to market products with a verified disposal program, but we've got a long way to go just pressuring them to use decent workplaces, so it will probably be a while. Still, bringing the reality home helps us keep in mind what everntually needs to happen.

Look up Free Geek. I'm in Portland, and I do volunteer work with them. Perhaps the point of the story is to raise awareness and get you to make sure your e-waste is reused or recycled properly in your own community. Perhaps you'll start a Free Geek where you are.

There is a problem. The first step is to acknowledge that there is a problem. The second step is to do something about it, and your Logical Fallacy (black and white) about giving up tech is... Apathetic. Apathetic is a polite word. Your complete l

These stories belittle the techs in Africa who tinker and repair, for financial gain among manufacturers intent on "planned obsolescence". "Parasites of the poor" is the label for these stories in Africa.

It's not a hoax. It's a complicated issue, with advocates from multiple sides of the issue *all* playing fast and loose with the "facts", since they are mostly PR advocates. Reading that comment thread really was an excruciating reminder that some people will take an argument to great length for its own sake, or for the sake of a grudge.

E.G. it does not matter much whether a TV with 1 year of life left in it goes directly into a third-world dump, or spends a year in a house before it gets there. It does

Hmm. A CRT with one year left of life on it? That would be, what, a 24 year old CRT? Those are what is photographed at the Agbogbloshie and Lagos dumps, for sure. But when UN examined the sea containers, and Greenpeace filmed them, they found 10 year old TVs, some taken from hotel - flat-screen-replacements. The hypothesis that the Africans are buying goods that will only last an average of one year is an interesting one, but I don't think they could accomplish that buying used product even if they t

The third world is undoubtedly bad, but the only way we can get them to clean up is if we clean ourselves up first. If we create products that are easier to recycle and then develop disposal systems that avoid dumping them poorer nations will soon join in because there is money to be made. We treat waste like a problem we have to pay to make go away, where as these guys have already figured out that it can be profitable if you don't care about health and safety.

Additionally the US is doing quite badly compared to Europe. Were are your restrictions on exporting to places that dump, or your equivalent of RoHS? The bar has been set.

What exactly is supposed to be the problem here? The only way "we" get the third world to clean up is by making them part of the first world. The first world went through its own polluting stage and it came out fine.

The first world came out fine thanks to advantages it had when it was developing, advantages that the third world does not have today.

And we see that your "advantages" are:

First, there was no first world before the first world. This meant there was little pressure from above, because there was no "above". There were less/no AGW alarmists and tree huggers getting in the way of industrious businesses from improving the economy necessary to pull a society into the first world.

Normally, people would consider a working example as an advantage.

Second, pollution s not seen as a huge global problem. Your country pollutes? That's your problem. The notion that we're in a global village and your pollution will affect the whole world later was yet to be popularized (one reason being there were less AGW alarmists pushing the narrative)

Ok, where's the disadvantage here? I thought at first you were speaking of pollution holding back the third world. Or that somehow there was a global aspect to pollution which was relevant to your claim.

But that's not what you actually wrote. With this and the previous paragraph, you seem to saying that some people thinking pollution is a big deal and some people don't. While that is what I'd consider

The fact that responsible recycling is occurring doesn't change the fact that irresponsible e-Waste burning is occurring any more than the fact that America is full of obese people changes the fact that there are literally children starving in America.

And none of the TVs in this photo were imported from western nations. None of them. So, of the 1% of these shown in TFA, how many were actually imported? Or is the point to think about the sad Negro children paid $1 to stand on the husks of TVs thrown out by African cities?

This is what you come upon when you go filming the poor amongst the poor. Yet again a relatively small are is shown, this time around the RT monitor stands. It looks like a problem of law enforcement, lack of recycling infrastructure for terminal waste and lack of employment for these people.Don't fall for e-waste scare again. Actual numbers tell that the vast majority of it is recycled and reused. This was covered already but here's one witness example :http://www.usatoday.com/story/... [usatoday.com]

"A handful of countries in the developed world don't like the ban," Puckett said. "Some countries have ratified the Basel Convention but don't agree to the ban."

Ingenthron disagrees with the definition of electronic equipment exported for repair as hazardous. He said those exports account for about 8% of the 13 million pounds Good Point processes, and provide a livelihood for Third World entrepreneurs.

Wahab Mohammed, 36, of Accra, Ghana, relies on Good Point to provide an inventory of used computers and more for his business in Ghana.

"I buy TVs, computers, speakers, amplifiers and stereos," Wahab said last month as he roamed the maze of shrink-wrapped mountains of equipment at Good Point. "When I take them back I have people who work for me. We resell everything, 80% to 90% we're able to make it work."

Wahab tries to make the pilgrimage to Good Point every three or four months, splitting his time between Middlebury and Accra. He's planning to open a recycling plant in Ghana.

"In Africa laptops cost more than here brand new," Wahab said. "My customers appreciate me bringing in used laptops they're able to buy for $100. I still make money."

In fact what you see in TFA is not our waste, but Ghanans's waste. The news is they're dumping CRT PC monitors (looks like 17 inchers), probably because they're too expensive to run, and some of them may just have failed.Africans don't want to buy our discarded CRTs these days and no goodwill organisation will pay for the shipping either.

I would also like to know what happens to TFA's pile of five PC on the moped. "PCs and electronic devices that look in reasonable condition are sold untested in Accra". Well three are AT, so a bit crap (but may contain hard drives, etc., and may serve some limited use or as thin clients), two are ATX and so are USB, can do MP3 playback, file transfers to from USB flash drives or cell phones, word processing or accounting ; probably divx playback (the bottom one is color-coded, thus powerful) . Just don't turn it on often.

In fact what you see in TFA is not our waste, but Ghanans's waste. The news is they're dumping CRT PC monitors (looks like 17 inchers), probably because they're too expensive to run, and some of them may just have failed.

You're really a colossal idiot if you don't think we're still disposing of monitors. I still see people selling them on craigslist every day, let alone giving them away.

We are still disposing of them, yes, there's always crates full of them at the dump (in Vermont).
There's no used market for them though. I see people trying to sell them, but I never see anybody buy them. Their value is in the negative numbers; IE you typically have to pay to get rid of them. Even the thrift stores sell LCDs now. Only a fool would pay money for a CRT in this market.

I did that a couple times. Want to use speaker cables? You can cut the cable at the desired length with a pair of scissors, then if you're lazy, burn the end of the cable with a cigarette lighter to bare it. Ditto with CAT5 pairs (the tiny inner wires - I don't suggest burning what surrounds them), there the pollution is tiny is comparison.

(Don't buy thick high end speaker cables, they're useless and a rip off.. and they're harder to rip off?)

When you burn it, everything you don't want goes up in smoke leaving behind everything you do want. In the United States, copper theft is very high. This almost always means burning what you stole to get at the copper - otherwise no one will buy it. I live not 10-minutes away from a scrapyard that buys the most obviously stolen copper. If you bring in 80 pounds of heavy-duty copper wiring with the plastic still on it, they won't purchase it because they can't accurately weigh it. Also, they can't legally b

Seriously, if a bunch of people can make a living by being horribly inefficient, then surely some smart engineers can extract the valuables from this by building a good process?

I mean, even if you improve organization a little, and you build a furnace with a rudimentary smoke filter, this situation would be immensely improved for everyone. Those people make a better living, and the smoke coming off it wouldn't be half as bad... (Although, if someone would actually build that, it would be reported as 'Wester

First off, it is not right to pollute all over. We are killing all sorts of ppl, and wildlife.
BUT, just as big of a reason is that there are a large number of elements in these. These can be burned safely with the waste heat used for thermal electricity, and then the elements are saved off by. Heck, we paid for them once, and with recycling here, we can make use of these.
Regardless, it is time to pass a law barring any shipping off of e-waste to other undeveloped nations.

To add to the imagery and stories we see in the posts above, a friend of mine recently went to Agbogbloshie to film a documentary about damage being done, to connect with the people who's live are impacted by this environmental atrocity. A trailer for the documentary has been cut and is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_610iyt_HA

It is a good thing that here on slashdot, its relevance is being shown to the perfect audience. We need/must to do something about this.The question I have, is, how d

If you could remember the name of the documentary and share it with us, that would be great. The fact that *the* solution to this rather complex issue is already out there, it would help to stimulate the conversation further....and wouldn't soil the good name of Star Blitzzz promotions.